πŸ“· April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 2: Flowers

Desert bloom - Southern Arizona

πŸ“· Day01 : toy (@pcora)

Boston Terrier with his favorite squeeky Toy

Currently reading: Slow Horses by Mick Herron πŸ“š

Lamb’s laugh wasn’t a genuine surrender to amusement; more of a temporary derangement. Not a laugh you’d want to hear from anyone holding a stick.

I enjoyed the TV series, but the book is even better.

Finished reading: The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry πŸ“šβ˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.

Currently reading: Sibley’s Birding Basics by David Allen Sibley πŸ“š

Finished reading: Dune by Frank Herbert πŸ“š β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

There is no better teacher than history in determining the future. There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book.πŸ“š

Charlie Munger

Camped along the Colorado River here at Davis Camp on the Arizona-Nevada border. Smaller rigs can nose right up to the edge of the river. This is my kind of camping.

Adventure Van on the Colorado RiverColorado River at Davis Camp

Currently reading: Dune by Frank Herbert πŸ“š

Rereading ahead of seeing the movie. I had forgotten how much I loved this book.

Finished reading: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh πŸ“š β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜†

After three good years with Craft, I’ve moved my reading notes and PKM to Bear. I really love Bear’s simplicity and hidden power on both Mac and iOS. No futzing, just my words. Blog post: Bear 2 for Writing and Thinking.

Screenshot of Bear 2.

Currently reading: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh πŸ“š

Finished reading: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin πŸ“š

This was a good book. I liked the characters and the storyline. The reasons Sam and Sadie found to be mad at the other were a little frustrating, but I think that’s ultimately the lesson they each needed to learn. The portrayal of grief and loss was really well done. β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†

Thank you @Annie for the recommendation!

Mac-only Apps

I’ve been evaluating Bear 2 to replace Craft for my reading notes and quasi-Zettelkasten for the past few weeks. I’ve used Craft for over three years, but that tool has morphed into a team note-taking and document-sharing platform that doesn’t mesh well with my needs anymore.

My initial impressions of Bear have been quite positive. Here is an app with a calming, minimalist design, yet in many ways, has more power and capabilities than Craft. And best of all, it intuitively works like you’d expect. Like a Mac app.

Finished reading: The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov πŸ“š

Currently reading: The Reformation by Will Durant πŸ“š

Finished reading: The Renaissance by Will Durant πŸ“š

Steinbeck captures my basic attitude towards New Years Resolutions here in the third week of January:

It is very strange that when you set a goal for yourself, it is hard not to hold toward it even if it is inconvenient and not even desirable.

It’s been a couple years since I finished In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. I read all six volumes with an amazing Twitter book group over the course of a year. I struggled with the serpentine sentences and French society references at the time, but passages like these stuck with me. πŸ“š

Marcel Proust Quote from Time Regained

Currently reading: The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov πŸ“š

As personal finance apps go, Quicken Classic for Mac is pretty good these days. Here’s my assessment of the biggest improvements over the past couple of years and why, for some, it’s the perfect tool to manage your money.

Quicken Classic for Mac - Investment Dashboard Screenshot

Finished reading: Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree πŸ“š

I shared my favorite books of 2023 in My Year of Reading. πŸ“š

Handwritten list of 2023 books read.

Finished reading: Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li πŸ“š

My 75th book of 2023, which is a new personal record for the most books I’ve read in a single year. Many of the stories in this collection touch on the hard to articulate grief of losing a child, which hit home for me. β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†